CALDY Cricket Club has been awarded £20,000 in funding for their ground development project.

It was identified by the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Cheshire Cricket Board as a club of strategic importance in the general development of the game.

The £20,000 will be used towards the cost of a three bay synthetic practice area. The total project cost was approximately £38,500.

The club's chairman, David Brown, said: "We were delighted and relieved when we were awarded the grant because we urgently needed to up-grade our practice facilities and we have been fundraising for this project for over two years.

"This top class practice area to ECB specifications will give a real boost to our coaching programme.

"This three bay practice area provides a safe environment which is so important in the development of young cricketers.

"As a local community and family club, on junior practice nights we will also welcome parents to use our pavilion facilities.

"The club has made good progress in recent years and we have achieved ECB Clubmark and Focus Club status, there are four Saturday league sides, an over 40’s team play midweek and there are over 100 junior cricketers."

“This season we have staged two Cheshire County age group matches at the ground and next season, with the added advantage of a quality practice area, we hope we will attract more county representative games in support of the Cheshire Cricket Board.

"We also hope to develop cricket opportunities for people with disabilities.”

“We are pleased the ECB has recognised the work we do at junior level and we are extremely grateful to the England and Wales Cricket Trust for their most generous grant."

Bruce Cruse, ECB's national funding and facilities manager, said: "Investing in worthy projects like this one allows cricket clubs to make their facilities as welcoming and accessible as possible to members, players and visiting teams.

"Having high quality cricket facilities accessible to the community will be key to sustaining participation in grass roots cricket over the coming years.”